Mahmoud Khalil responds to charges against him for the first time in new legal filings, and describes the ‘irreparable harm’ of his detention

By Chelsea Bailey, CNN

(CNN) — Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate at the center of a high-profile deportation fight with the US government over his pro-Palestinian views, personally responded to the government’s claims that he’s a threat to foreign policy for the first time in a sworn legal declaration unsealed Thursday.

The declaration from Khalil comes after a New Jersey federal judge ruled last month that the government’s use of an obscure immigration law to detain and deport him is “likely unconstitutional.”

Khalil was among the first in a series of high-profile arrests of pro-Palestinian students as the Trump administration moved to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses.

Khalil’s attorneys filed a massive tranche of legal declarations late Wednesday – includ